Review: ‘Vampirella Strikes’ #3

The third issue of Vampirella Strikes is another step in the right direction for one of comics’ longest running female protagonists. The creative team of Sniegoski and Desjardins are starting to develop some chemistry as the story continues to build towards a big pay off.
WRITTEN BY: Tom Sniegoski
ART BY: Johnny Desjardins
PUBLISHER: Dynamite
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: March 6th, 2013

Writer Tom Sniegoski has made this book intriguing enough that it should sustain readers attention throughout the entire story-arc. The hook is simple but effective, as Vampirella caught in the middle of a holy war between heaven and hell. Heaven recruits her to retrieve a missing angel, but as the story develops Vampirella finds herself in an internal struggle between good and evil. There is some solid action in this issue and the cliffhanger ending is enough to bring readers back for another month.

Artist Johnny Desjardins definitely brings a youthful energy to the book that has been missing from earlier Vampirella books put out by Dynamite. His work is very reminiscent of the early ’90s image style that favored hyper-detailed line work over overall storytelling. His work here is a bit stiff with the characters looking like they are frozen in time at various times throughout the issue. Desjardins also gives Vampirella this huge hip-hop chain that that looks absolutely ridiculous. Every time it comes out in the issue it takes the reader out of the story because it looks like something absurd that Flavor Flav would wear around his neck. For all his misgivings, Desjardins work is still solid and reminds me a lot the early work of David Finch or even Myrat Michaels stylistically, which works within the context of this book.

After three issues of Vampirella Strikes the creative team has managed to keep things exciting enough to captivate reader’s attention, which is one of the biggest compliments you can bestow on any book. The past few years of Vampirella books have made the character subject to more ridicule than Aquaman with the storylines used bad clichés, but Vampirella Strikes continues to mine a solid storyline that delivers good action and interesting characters. Let’s just hope that the creative team can stick the landing here.